


Even a Fine Line Has Two Sides

by Leela



Series: Holiday Gifts 2008 [4]
Category: Forever Knight
Genre: Episode Related, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-15
Updated: 2010-03-15
Packaged: 2017-10-08 00:45:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/70966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leela/pseuds/Leela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of Dark Knight, Natalie does what any sensible woman would do. She goes home and has a drink... or maybe a few.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even a Fine Line Has Two Sides

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Amilyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amilyn/gifts).



> **Beta**: batdina  
> **A/N**: For Amy H, who requested Natalie, gen, scotch. The lines in italics between each drabble are from Dark Knight.

_It's the blood that keeps you from coming over_.

Picking up the bottle of scotch, Natalie refills her glass. Alcohol sloshes over the rim and onto the coffee table. Blearily, she drags a finger through the spill then sucks Glenfiddich off her skin.

Some days she hates Nick Knight. With a passion. Hates the way he makes her feel. Hates being forced into the role of the bad guy. She's tired of being the one who has to push him into acknowledging that his behaviour has consequences. She wants to be the one who brings that smile to his face.

Just once. Surely, that's not too much to ask.

_Just a little weak... hungry..._

There's a fine line between death and life. Nick straddled that line centuries ago when his master — and how she despises that title — brought him across. She can't run the tests she wants, not with a scientific sample of one and no control group, but she _knows_ that part of the answer is to bring Nick back to that edge, so he can step back over the line.

Starvation's too far in one direction; drinking blood too far in the other. But how can she identify the median? And what else is needed?

She sips her scotch, hoping for inspiration.

_Fastest way into a coffin_

Bright sunshine wakes her. She's lying on the couch under her grandmother's afghan, with Sidney curled into the crook of her legs. Her head aches. Her mouth feels like she's been eating Sidney's fur. The bottle on the coffee table mocks her.

The phone rings. Even as she pulls a cushion over her head, Natalie listens for the machine. Maybe it's work, an emergency.

"Nat? It's me? Nick." He sighs. "We need to talk." A pause before he continues, "Call me."

He needs the hope of her mortality, she thinks; as much as she needs the possibilities in his quest.

~fin~


End file.
